Association for Behavior Analysis International

Behavior analysis has grown in popularity over the past 20 years, to the point of being a high-demand service in the area of autism and developmental disabilities. Our field has an ethical code that governs our professional behavior. However, there are an increasing number of incidents of behavior analysts behaving in ways that are in conflict with ethics and best practice. Section 7 of the BACB Professional and Ethical Compliance Code obligates behavior analysts to approach behaviorists who are drifting from our ethical code, in an attempt to rectify potentially unethical situations. The panel members will start this session by briefly describing some cases where behavior analysts were engaging in ethically questionable practices and how they were resolved. The bulk of this session will provide opportunities for dialog between the audience and panel members to discuss questions of practice by audience members, and strategies to resolve these potential ethical situations. Participants will be given decision-making strategies and role-play various scenarios to better prepare them for improving the behavior of behavior analysts who may be drifting from ethical practice.